"Transcendence" by Steven Whetstone for Third Thursday Vista Nights

 City Art is pleased to present its next gallery exhibit featuring Steven Whetstone’s solo exhibition “Transcendent”, opening Thursday May 15, 2014 with a reception for the artist from 5:30pm – 8pm. The exhibit continues thru June 21, 2014.
As early as 1983 Steven Whetstone's passions have always been art and baseball. He grew up splitting his time between the two until 2004 when he took his love of art to the professional arena and left baseball behind. As a standout pitcher for USC and Brookland-Cayce High School Steven took that success on to the minor league with the Chicago Whitesox. But his USC art degree and love clouted with extensive training led to his professional career as a full time fine-artist.
Steven has sold over 50 paintings just last year. His clientele include local and national celebrities, interior designers, art collectors and art enthusiasts. He continues to create pieces out of his home in Columbia with his wife, Jennifer and dog, Norman.
Steven’s work is concentrated in oils but also include watercolor and charcoal drawings. His subject matter varies from low country life and style to more modern figurative pieces, period pieces, and landscapes, to family portraits. He also lends his knowledge to the Columbia community by holding art classes twice a week and sharing his skills to aspiring artists at City Art in the Vista. Steven has shown his works in galleries statewide and is sought after by the SC Law Magazine and The University of South Carolina's Football Hall of Captains. He currently has two shows a year reflecting his personality and passions for subject matter and his travels.
Steven comments about this exhibit, “These bodies of works showcase everything that I enjoy about being an artist and that I get to experience through opportunities and travel. There are several series in this show ranging from low country landscapes, people, to plein-air, to a personal series that I haven't tackled before to which I hold close to my heart.
This personal series explores the depths of watching a loved one go through cancer- exploring all the emotions, fight, grit, soles, solemnest, confusion, trial, beauty and love. It's my most sensitive work to date. Water and darkness have many metaphors. These works include figures and fabric, although soft and delicate hold a much more symbolic state of reality compromised by darkness and uncertainty. The simplest thing in this life is to breathe and when we're knocked out of breath and swallowed by this life it's hard to find direction and control when all we need to do is find the surface. In one word my wife describes the last three years as transcendent. To rise above and find the surface, to show others the love in Christ she's found and to share it with others while being surrounded in darkness.”
City Art Gallery is located at 1224 Lincoln St. in the historic Congaree Vista area in Columbia, South Carolina. Gallery hours are Monday – Thursday 10 a.m. until 6 p.m., Friday 10:00 am until 5 p.m., and Saturdays 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information contact Wendyth Wells, City Art Gallery, at 803-252-3613 or email ww@cityartonline.com. Visit online at www.cityartonline.com.